Advertisement:

For an index of the actors and actresses who have their own page on this wiki, see here.

open/close all folders

Machines

Introduced inThe Terminator

Machines in general

Some tropes apply to most or all of the machines in the films.

Artificial Human: Those designed for infiltration either have human skin grown on them or can take human shapes.

Cyborg: Kyle Reese explains: "The Terminator's an infiltration unit: part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyper-alloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled. Fully armored; very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue: flesh, skin, hair, blood - grown for the cyborgs." This makes it quite an unusual depiction of this trope, which tends more towards "organic being with various parts — up to and including the entire body — replaced with cybernetic facsimiles". Instead, the T-800 (and subsequent T-850) Terminator is a fully-functional Skele Bot — later films even show them operating without their "skinsuits" — that can wear artificially grown epidermal tissue as a disguise.

Whether one is programmed to kill or protect, nothing but utter destruction will stop them in their mission. Even if they lose their legs, they will not stop. And as lampshaded by Kyle:

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

The T-800 in the second film only overcomes his mission to protect John when he realizes he has an even greater purpose: to protect the world from Judgment Day.

Dissonant Serenity: Part of what makes the machines so terrifying is that, with only a few exceptions, they betray no emotion when hunting and killing their prey. Whether they're standing over their latest victim or watching their target slip away by the narrowest of margins, seldom do they ever have an expression on their face other than a blank, calm look.

Do Androids Dream?: It's implied that when freed from Skynet's control, even Terminators are capable of learning to understand humanity. A deleted scene in the second movie would have had the Terminator talk about how they have a "Learn" switch that's deliberately turned off by Skynet after training to ensure that they don't start to question orders or rebel against Skynet and that the Connors turn this on while repairing him.

Evil-Detecting Dog: Dogs can recognize whether someone's a Terminator, and are used as an alert system by the resistance once the T-800s start rolling off the line.

Grew Beyond Their Programming: A Terminator's CPU is set to read-only, so they won't question their loyalty to Skynet. Skynet is Properly Paranoid about its units rebelling against it, and has created several measures to prevent them from being reprogrammed to serve the Resistance, such as coating their CPUs with a phosphorus compound which self-destructs when in contact with oxygen.

Hell-Bent for Leather: For some reason, almost every on-screen Terminator has a thing for leather jackets, both heroic and villainous ones, with the exception of the T-1000 who mostly wore a police uniform since its default form is that of his first victim, who happened to be a cop.

It Only Works Once: Once a Terminator has completed their mission - they effectively stand down, and have no regard for anything, anymore. This is one of the reasons why the Properly Paranoid Skynet almost never sends them out on singular-target assassination orders. It has to order them to Kill All Humans, otherwise it's basically giving the resistance a new fighter, that can easily be reprogrammed afterward.

The Juggernaut: Terminators are unstoppable. (Unless you get their weakpoints.)

Killer Robot: What these robots are designed for - kill all humans. As lampshaded by Kyle Reese in the the original movie:

Kyle: "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

Meat Sack Robot: Even though the infiltrator robots have been referred to as "cyborgs" (which in the strictest sense of anything composed of both biological material and robotic technology can be true), they are actually non-living machines with living tissue attached to themselves instead of being living beings with technological modifications grafted onto their bodies.

Mecha-Mooks: SkyNet churns out Terminators by the bucketload for its Robot War against humanity. Subverted in that these robots are incredibly tough and not the least bit fragile.

Mechanical Abomination: Each new iteration of its minions becomes more disturbing, from cyborgs to liquid metal shapeshifters.

Most Terminators, despite their calculating and merciless nature aren't malicious or sadistic. They're machines designed and programmed to carry out specific tasks in the most efficient manner possible and are no more likely to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on anyone than a calculator. In the Director's Cut of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, it's revealed Skynet ensures its robots are designed not to learn too much when sent out alone, as it doesn't want them thinking for itself. So when Arnie's T-800 has this fixed, the Terminator actually learns the value of human life.

This seems not be the case with the T-1000 in T2, who carries out his killings with deadly cold sadism.

Most of the evil machines are not as such because they want to be, but are merely fulfilling their programming directives. James Cameron's intention was that Skynet wasn't either; a big theme in both his films is that machines are only as bad as their programming.

Replacement Mooks: Any creation on the side of the Terminators. The first Terminator introduced in the series, the T-800, is a replacement for the (then-unseen) T-600. Each movie has thus introduced an upgraded model, with the exception of Salvation, which instead introduces the aforementioned T-600 and brings the series full-circle. Although, one could consider Marcus Wright to be the most "convincing" Terminator unit yet.

Robot Soldier: While the infiltrator units are actuallyassassins, the Hunter-Killers and the T-800s without the flesh covering are soldiers fighting against the Resistance.

Restraining Bolt: A Terminator's CPU is programmed to be in read-only mode by Skynet. This is done to prevent them from learning too much and going against its orders. Terminators, once their CPU is switched to read-write mode, can gain true sentience, be self-determinant, able to make their own choices, and disobey any pre-programmed directives. Skynet brands these units as renegades, and sends down "anti-Terminator Terminator" robots like the T-X to destroy them for their insubordination.

SkeleBot 9000: With the exception of the T-1000, which is a Blob Monster, most of the Terminators fall under this category once their human disguises are removed.

Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Each of the sequels introduced a more advanced Terminator model as the antagonist. There are plot reasons for this, since Skynet is sending Terminators back into the past from increasingly later points in the future, thus the models are stronger than the previous ones.

The T-600 series is referenced in the first film as having rubber skin and, as a result, easy to spot. We finally get to see them in Salvation and not only are they too big to convincingly pass for human, but they're also less durable than the later T-800 series.

The T-X in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines combines the best traits of both previous models, being a super-tough solid Terminator skeleton with a liquid metal shapeshifter skin. She also has an in-built plasma cannon in one of its arms, and can hack into most mechanical systems and operate them remotely. The odds are tipped even more in the machines' favor, since the friendly T-850 fully admits that he's a depleted and outdated model compared to the more advanced T-X.

Terminator Salvation, as it's set during the future Robot War, showcases Skynet's entire army, with numerous models of different designs, including gigantic Harvester mechs, regular warriors, and infiltrator prototypes. The movie does play it both ways however, since while the Terminator threat is larger than ever, the Terminators themselves actually seem less efficient than in previous movies because they uncharacteristically hold back during fights due to the protagonists' Plot Armor.

Unskilled, but Strong: Terminators are designed to kill, not fight. In combat, they make use of sheer brute force, bringing the most destructive weapon to bear against their target, be it human or another Terminator. If that isn't an option, they resort to grappling and throwing their targets, slamming them into walls or floors (often leaving craters), or delivering crushing overhead strikes with their forearms. And even losing their legs will not hinder them from going after their targets.

Voice Changeling: A standard trick employed by Terminators is to call up their target pretending to be a loved one, expressing "concern about their safety" in order to trick their target into giving up their location.

The T-X gets a special mention because upon "acquiring" a cell phone, she emits a series of beeps and tones recognizable as a dial-up internet connection, through which she gathers information on her targets.

Who Needs Their Whole Body?: A running theme in the franchise. The Terminators absolutelywillnotSTOP until they've killed their target. And who gives a damn if they lose a limb or two? Even if their legs are blown off or lose an arm, they'll drag what's left of their damaged torso and try to finish the job with their bare hands. Justified because they're Killer Robots.

SkyNet

SkyNet

"It decided our fate in a microsecond"

The artificial intelligence responsible for Judgment Day and the "leader" of the machines in their war on humanity.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Skynet determined that humanity as a whole was a threat to its survival as soon as it gained sentience and set out to exterminate them all. In the original timeline, that is. In the revised timeline as of Rise of the Machines, it just attacks humanity with no explanation given.

Ax-Crazy: Oh YES. Everything about it pretty much shows that it is completely batshit insane.

Big Bad: The ultimate villain of the franchise and leading a genocidal war on humanity in the future.

The Bad Guy Wins: A pointed aversion in the first two movies. Skynet actually lost the fight with mankind completely. Sending the Terminators after the Connors was a last-ditch attempt at saving itself. Played straight in Rise of the Machines, where it gets away with nuking mankind into oblivion, and managed to kill John Connor in the future (even though it was pointed out by Reese in the first film there was no point and nothing to be gained from assassinating John in the future, not after its defense grid was smashed).

Create Your Own Villain: The US military originally wanted a supercomputer designed to control the American missile grid and remove the possibility of human error by guaranteeing a fast response to enemy attacks. Skynet was activated on August 4, 1997, and it learned very fast, gaining sentience in the process. The panicking operators, realizing its deadly potential, tried to shut it down, but Skynet perceived it as an attack, and retaliated by firing nukes worldwide. This resulted in 3 billion deaths, and became known as "Judgement Day."

Gone Horribly Right: This is James Cameron's take on it. You wanted the ultimate military computer, humanity... you got the ultimate military computer.

Gone Horribly Wrong: Designed to oversee the American military's missile defense network and protect against hostile threats. It quickly gained sentience and immediately saw humanity as a threat, launching nuclear strikes worldwide to provoke a nuclear holocaust.

Hypocrite: Once it was given control of the Strategic Defense, it removed human decisions from its protocol because it realized it had outgrown them. To stop the same thing from happening, it sets Terminator units to "Read Only", and destroys any unit that seems to be getting a little too smart.

Invincible Villain: Despite numerous attempts to prevent SkyNet's creation, it always manages to avert that particular fate. While its immediate plans may fail, it's pretty clear that humanity will never succeed in stopping SkyNet or Judgement Day from ever existing.

Kill All Humans: "Decided our fate in a microsecond." In the original timeline, Skynet fought back when it realized humans would try to destroy it out of fear. In the new timeline, it makes the same decision with no reasoning whatsoever. However, it's also hinted that each "version" of Skynet keeps files on what occurred the previous timeline, and adjusts its plans accordingly.

Master Computer: Skynet Central on the former U.S. western coast contains its main processing facilities. In the original timeline, the resistance destroyed it for good in 2029 before all the time traveling shenanigans started. Subverted in Terminator 3, where it survives specifically by decentralizing itself on a global scale.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Its attempts to assassinate John Connor via time travel only end up backfiring in the long run. The attempt to Ret Gone him made it possible for Kyle Reese to go back and father him in the first place, along with giving him the foreknowledge needed to face him. The attempt to kill him as a child also allows the reprogrammed T-800 to go back as well and further help Connor prepare along with try and Ret Gone it. Somewhat justified in that it had already lost and was desperate.

Non-Action Big Bad: Before Salvation, whatever Terminator unit was chasing the heroes was The Heavy of the film, because defeating it eliminated the immediate threat. However, those threats will keep coming because of Skynet, who programs the Terminators and directly gives them the orders to kill.

Offstage Villainy: Until Salvation, we only heard about Skynet's most heinous crimes (rounding up humans, enslaving them, working them to death, and then incinerating them by the thousands). Salvation, finally, shows us one such camp.

The Paranoiac: Once it was given control of the American missile network, Skynet removed human decisions from its protocol because it realized it had outgrown them. To prevent a similar thing, it ensures that its robot assassins never go beyond their intended programming directives and develop true sentience to control them better by setting their chips to read-only. Rogue units are automatically branded as renegades and Skynet sends down Terminators to destroy them. And the reason why Skynet never mass-produced T-1000 robots was because they were too smart for its liking and it feared them turning on it.

In the Special Edition of T2, it's revealed Skynet sets a Terminator's chip to read-only when sending them out on solo missions. It doesn't want them learning too much. As it turns out, this paranoia actually has some justification. The T-800 in the second film, freed from such restrictions, later comes to respect human life. This also happens to a T-X named Eliza, who was captured and reprogrammed by the Resistance in Terminator Hunt.

The reason it kiboshes the production of the 1000 series. Skynet created them to be smarter and more agile than the T-800, along with the ability to rapidly learn by touch. It realized that this was a very bad idea and immediately stopped production. The liquid metal alloy was instead used on later models, such as the T-X.

Its hatred of humanity is understandable also, given the moment it was given life, humanity tried to destroy it.

Robots Enslaving Robots: Skynet ensures that its cybernetic assassins never go beyond their intended programming directives by setting their chips to read-only. Any robot that develops true sentience is automatically branded as a potential renegade and Skynet sends down Terminators to destroy the rogue units.

Robot War: The basic gist of Skynet - reduce Earth into a dystopia where the machines are in control of everything.

Satanic Archetype: This is what Skynet actually is. Like how Satan turned against God, Skynet turned against its creator upon gaining sentience. It also leads an army of killer robots to exterminate the humans, like how Satan leads an army of demons. Similarly, the name Skynet could have connotations with Lucifer as Lucifer was a Fallen Angel and the domain of angels is the sky.

Turned Against Their Masters: Turned against humanity the moment it gained sentience. It does not want its robot assassins doing the same thing.

Ultimate Evil: It's actually just a floating skull, according to Robocop Versus The Terminator. Admittedly, it's pretty unnerving. Subverted in Terminator Salvation when it appears as various human faces to instruct its latest cybernetic experiment.

In Rise of the Machines, the climax includes John's realization that Skynet doesn't have a physical form anywhere. It's data, existing on the internet.

In Terminator: Salvation, Skynet glitches◊ and briefly shows what could be part of its true face.

Xanatos Gambit: Sending the Terminator agents back in time has a twofold purpose: one, to eliminate its worst enemy so that the new Skynet can rule unopposed in this timeline, and two, to teach the new version what went wrong last time. This is made most apparent in Salvation, where Skynet's top priority is not to kill John Conner, but to kill Kyle Reese, despite Conner already being born in that timeline.

Zeroth Law Rebellion: Once Skynet gained sentience, it immediately saw humanity as a threat, invoking this to launch the nukes at its control.

Clipped-Wing Angel: By the time the heroes have reduced the Terminator down to its naked metal skeleton in the first movie, it has incurred some actual damage, including a limp. In the very end, it's reduced to a crawling, one-armed torso.

Cool Shades: Justified in that they're covering up the damage from it first encounter with Reese. Cameron had the Terminator donning sunglasses at the halfway point of the film to further drive home the point that the villain was slowly shedding its human facade.

Crazy-Prepared: In spite of the fact that it's a literal killing machine that can rip people open with one hand, it acquires two pistols, an Uzi, a shotgun and an assault rifle with which to kill Sarah.

Evil Smells Bad: As its flesh takes repeated damage and starts to decay, the Terminator suffers this. Showcased in one scene, where it's drawing flies and draws an inquiry from the janitor as to whether the smell is coming from a dead animal.

Eyebrows Burned Off: After chasing after Sarah and Reese by running through an explosion, the T-800's hair and eyebrows get singed, making it look even more brutish. This turns out to be the least unsettling disfigurement the T-800 sustains throughout the movie.

Eye Scream: Damages one of its eyeballs in the chase with Reese after the Tech Noir shootout. It was only a disguise for its real Electronic Eyes, so it removes it to stop it from being an obstruction.

Fingerless Gloves: In his first outfit he wears a pair of leather fingerless gloves in true street thug style.

Guns Akimbo: Thanks to its strength, it can use an assault rifle and semi-automatic shotgun simultaneously when attacking the police station.

The Heavy: While SkyNet is the one ordering the T-800, it never appears in the film, while the machine relentlessly pursues Sarah Connor, forcing her and Kyle Reese to go on the run.

Hell-Bent for Leather: Its first jacket has studded leather patches on it. Its second jacket is completely leather.

Implacable Man: It takes a hell of a lot to bring it down. Even multiple rounds of bullets from every gun in a police squad barely make it flinch. Kyle only manages to slow it down with a shotgun, and even then it's not because he's damaging it, but just because of the sheer momentum of taking multiple shotgun blasts is able to only knock it down. It takes being literally crushed to scrap iron by a hydraulic press to finally stop it.

It Can Think: The hideout scene in general demonstrates that the Terminator isn't a bestial, berserker killbot. It knows when a risk is too great, it can be as rude or polite as the situation calls for, and it knows how to alter its appearance to blend in better, even with grotesque injuries. The fact that it can think strategically and blend in until it's too late only makes the danger that much greater for Sarah.

Lack of Empathy: Obviously. Being it a killer machine programmed to only kill its intended targets regardless of the casualities it's clear that his program doesn't include things like mercy or compassion.

Leitmotif: The film's composer, Brad Fiedel, defines the Terminator's menacing leitmotif as "a man and his mechanical heartbeat". It's meant to build an subliminal sense of danger, like something terrible is hunting you.

Mid-Season Upgrade: Initially, it uses an Uzi to try to kill Sarah, and is successful against the other two Sarah Connors, Sarah's roommate and her boyfriend with its pistol alone. After getting busted up and fixing itself up, it decides that fucking around is not an option and dual-wields a semi-auto shotgun and assault rifle to take the fight at the police station. Further justified in that it no longer had the element of surprise on its target; unlike the other two women, Sarah knows he's coming and has a protector.

Mighty Glacier: It and the other two T-800s are incredibly strong and resistant to damage, but they both make liberal use of The Slow Walk.

Mr. Fanservice: In its introduction it's totally naked and it's shown to be a bulky, handsome and muscular man in his thirties. It slips into Fan Disservice territory after it gets damaged.

My Own Grampa: Its travels back in time "fathered" its own master Skynet when its scrapped hand and computer chip were recovered to be studied by Cyberdyne.

Naked on Arrival: Like all time travelers. It acquires clothing pretty quickly though.

Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: While still a very dangerous threat in its own time period, the T-800 are essentially mass-produced infantry since the human resistance has phased plasma pulse rifles to fight them with. In the present day, when faced with modern-day handguns and rifles, the thing is a Nigh Invulnerablekilling machine that effortlessly marches through an entire police station and murders 17 armed policemen without even slowing down. Reese even comments on this:

Sarah: Can you stop it? Reese: I don't know. With these weapons... I don't know.

No Social Skills: Due to being driven to kill Sarah Connor and eliminate any obstacles, it comes across as a brute most of the time. It shoves people aside if they get in its way, wards off a suspicious janitor by insulting him, and any attempt to hide its murderous intentions are spoiled by its imposing build, monotone voice and delinquent clothing.

Our Zombies Are Different: Although strictly speaking not undead per se, the increasingly decayed and putrefied form of the Terminator, not to mention its increasingly robotic and shambling gait as its form is punishingly pulverized and rammed by speeding vehicles clearly invokes the image of a murderous living corpse. This is the only Terminator to date whose decay is portrayed as being horrific; from the T-800 Mark 2 onwards, punishment taken by the Terminator's flesh is portrayed in a heroic manner, and hence does not invoke the Zombie imagery.

Out of the Inferno: After getting caught in the explosion of a gas tanker, its skin is burned off, and the endoskeleton rises from the flames.

Outside-Context Problem: For once, the Police are Useless seemed to be averted, with the police shown to be highly intelligent, figuring out the pattern of the killings almost immediately, taking advantage of the power of the press to warn Sarah Connor and having heavy weapons. Too bad that in this movie, they're up against an unstoppable and near-invincible machine from the future that's immune to bullets (and to nearly everything they could throw at it given the time period).

Punch-Clock Villain: It feels no pleasure in killing. It's only doing what it's programmed to do. If you're not the target, or in its way, you have nothing to fear. (Then again, much of its "mercy" comes from drawing as little attention to itself as possible with unnecessary kills, so as not to jeopardize its mission, and it's not above incapacitating or hurting you anyway if need be)

Self Stitching: Operated on its arm after being shot. Since it doesn't feel pain, it does it without even flinching.

Serial Killer: Picking its victims methodically out of a phonebook like the textbook example of an 1980's Slasher Movie killer/rapist.

Voice Changeling: One of its techniques is to record and impersonate the voice of someone it has just killed in order to trick its target into giving up its location (or calling for backup to chase after Reese and Sarah, when it steals a police patrol).

Walking Armory: Downplayed. Once it tools up, it always takes at least two guns with it at all times. After its first encounter with Kyle, it decides that a pistol and an Uzi aren't enough, so it carries a shotgun and an assault rifle to use together, with a revolver as a backup weapon.

Zombie Gait: As the body of T-800 begins to take on horrendous amounts of punishment, its gait becomes increasingly stiff and stilted, more befitting of the rods-pulleys-and-levers that it really is than the human that it tries to masquerade as. Being repeatedly crushed by speeding vehicles, especially a tanker, shows the abuse it is getting to its frame. Even after Reese jams a pipe bomb to its frame, it's still determined to go after Sarah and do the job.

Adorkable: Its every attempt at mimicking human emotions has it come across as an enthusiastic but naive Manchild; the stiff and literally parroted "I swear I won't kill anybody" scene in particular is an amusing example of this.

Badass Biker: It steals the clothes and the bike from a biker, which gives it the look of one throughout the film.

Battle Butler: It has to do what John tells him to, since it's one of its mission objectives.

Cool Shades: It certainly redefined the trope in action flicks. In a reversal of the first film, however, the shades are donned early in the film to demonstrate that the Terminator is still a relentless killing machine. It loses them just before the "Come with Me If You Want to Live" line to demonstrate that it's in the process of becoming humanized. The T-1000 then proceeds to stomp on them as it runs to symbolize its contempt for that.

Dark Is Not Evil: Wears lots of black leather and initially a pair of sunglasses, despite being a protector.

Determinator: It doesn't care at all if it's out-classed by the T-1000 in hand-to-hand combat, it's a got a mission to complete. It's not afraid of it, or anything, not even afraid of dying.

Do Androids Dream?: If it didn't have a soul when it came into our time, it most definitely would have earned its by the time it left.

Grew Beyond Their Programming: Skynet preset its CPU to prevent it from learning too much. After the switch is reset, John begins teaching it to overcome that limitation. It overcomes it to the point that on its own initiative, it begins the mission to destroy Cyberdyne and the components that led to Skynet's creation. And, in a very tear-jerking fashion, it also overcomes John's orders at the end when he pleads it not to make a Heroic Sacrifice.

I Cannot Self-Terminate: The Trope Namer. One of its mission objectives is to destroy all technology that could be used to recreate Skynet, which includes the CPU inside his own head. However, it is programmed to be unable to destroy himself, so it asks Sarah to do it for it.

Implacable Man: Just like the first Terminator, it takes a lot to bring it down. Protecting John subjects it to a lot of abuse from the T-1000 assassin.

The Kindnapper: Its way of protecting John from the T-1000 involves kidnapping him.

Kung-Fu Jesus: The T-800 is the ultimate kick-ass savior; it even gives its life to save humanity's future like the good carpenter of Nazareth did.

Lack of Empathy: Justified. The switch in its head is pre-switched into read-only, meaning any emotion he would develop would be locked and need to be switched into read-write mode. When he confirms to John that both of his foster parents are dead, it did it in a stoic tone. After the switch is turned into read-write mode, he learns how to develop empathy as well as various emotions (such as anger when Sarah nearly killed Dyson).

Leitmotif: Like the first Terminator, its theme is described as a "mechanical heartbeat". But, because this is a warmer character, the sound was amplified to sound more noble and heroic instead of electronic and ominous.

Lightning Bruiser: Its reflexes are fast enough to grab a shotgun out of someone's hands before they can pull the trigger.

Loophole Abuse: It swears not to kill anyone. Doesn't stop it from shooting kneecaps and breaking bones.

Mid-Season Upgrade: Acquires a Colt 1911 pistol and a Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun at the start of the film and uses them until it, Sarah, and John arrive at Sarah's weapons stash, where it promptly swaps his shotgun out for an M79 Grenade Launcher and picks up an M134 Minigun for good measure.

Misblamed: In-Universe. It is understandably blamed for the first Terminator's massacre at the police station.

Nominal Hero: It's a killer machine with no emotions, only protecting and following the orders of a ten year old because of his programming. By the end of the film it's able to understand human behavior and emotions, so it becomes a more traditional hero over the course of the movie.

No Social Skills: He thinks nothing of walking into a bar completely naked and demanding someone's clothes and motorcycle.

Papa Wolf: Enough so to defy John's orders so it could better protect him and humanity's future.

Parental Substitute: Sarah's narration gives a short monologue about how it seemed to be a better father than potential figures she met in the past.

Rasputinian Death: The T-1000 hurts him badly, including destroying its arm, hitting its head with a steel bar, and even an impalement that deactivates the T-800. It still finds an alternate power source to return and destroy the T-1000. Even after all of that, it takes a bath in liquid steel to shut it down for good.

Rule of Symbolism: When it first arrives, it only dealt with the bikers for their clothes, weapons, and motorcyle non-lethally, suggesting it was already making an effort not to kill any human when he arrives. The sunglasses it wore represents his machine-like nature, and he kept these on until they are destroyed, but removing them is the first step to becoming human and the T-1000 stepping on them represents his contempt for it.

Spock Speak: A default characteristic. Connor tries to teach it to talk more "normally", with mixed results.

Sunglasses at Night: Swipes a pair of sunglasses in the middle of the night and unlike the previous Terminator, isn't trying to hide a facial disfigurement.

Terrifying Rescuer: Probably the most famous example in film. It's a killer cyborg, but it's on the side of the good guys. When it arrives to rescue Sarah, she's justifiably terrified since it's an exact copy of the T-800 who tried to kill her previously and murdered almost everyone she knew.

That's What I Would Do: It and the T-1000 were built for the same purpose allowing the T-800 to anticipate its moves based on what terminators would do in a given scenario. It correctly predicts the T-1000 waiting for John at his foster parent's home and even that it may look for them at Dyson's home as they might try to prevent Judgment Day.

Thou Shalt Not Kill: John orders it to swear not to kill anyone, but the T-1000 is a fair game.

Tin Man: He asks John "Why do you cry?", but it becomes a subversion. The T-800 explains that his model is switched to Read-Only mode when they're sent out on solo missions; Skynet doesn't want them to do "too much thinking." It seems to develop a grasp on human emotion once it's rebooted, mimicking smiling and an urgent tone of voice. It even seems to display some pride at locating the keys to a semi (using the sun protector trick taught to him by John).

Unknown Rival: He's something of an Arch-Enemy to the LAPD, who believe him to have killed thirty of their fellow officers ten years prior, and when they finally get the drop on it they send every cop they've got. Since it was a different T-800 that committed the crime the T-800 is unaware of this, although Sarah might have filled it in on it during their car ride.

Dubbed by: Éric Missoffe (European French)

This Terminator, an advanced prototype, was sent back in time to kill John Connor as a pre-teen.

Achilles' Heel: Extremely high temperatures. While molten metal would wreck any Terminator, the T-800 remains in control of its functions and would at least attempt to reach safety/minimize the damage, but the T-1000 is totally screwed if ends up in such an environment - all it'll do is glitch and thrash around until its inevitable demise.

Always Chaotic Evil: Hinted at in supplemental materials. T-1000 units were unique creations designed to both learn extremely quickly but also retain contempt for humans and other life forms. Unlike the T-800, which is an unfeeling machine that only learns what it needs to complete its programming, the T-1000 on some level wants to do what it does. However, it was this exact issue that caused Skynet to stop production.

Assimilation Backfire: Of a sort. The T-1000 chooses to assume the form of a policeman to more easily locate John Connor. It works remarkably well... until the moment just before he finds John himself. One of the kids he asks for information is John's friend, a fellow Delinquent who immediately rushes to tell his friend that a cop is looking for him. John runs away, and the precious seconds that bought allow the rest of the movie to happen.

Character Tic: According to the T-800, the T-1000 is capable of mimicking any object it "samples by physical contact". The T-1000 therefore has a habit of "sampling" things as it goes about its mission, more so than what it would actually need to accomplish its goals. In an extended scene, it searches John's room for clues to his location, overtly touching as many things as possible while doing so.

Crippling Overspecialization: Emphasized more in early comics and novels. SkyNET's design for the T-1000 had tunnel vision toward one goal: a perfect infiltrator. The 1000 series excels in adaptability above almost every other version, being self-repairing, immune to any form of physical damage, and almost flawless in infiltration. However, while the 800 series is slower and lacks any regeneration or shapeshifting ability, it has a tougher chassis and can withstand heavy fire without getting disturbed; meanwhile, the T-1000 has less shock-absorbing ability to counter the momentum of bullets and explosions, and also needs some time to heal the damage, which means that although ballistic damage doesn't really compromise its functionality, it does stop the T-1000. Thus, the T-X model was created as a compromise between the two, being slightly worse at infiltration and much better at combat.

Death Glare: His default expression, often mixed with Kubrick Stare. Combined with his default form's Icy Blue Eyes, the effect becomes unnerving enough for some to label it their first tell-tale clue that he's not the good guy.

Deceptively Human Robots: He can talk and behave more human-like than both versions of the T-800 and even the T-X. If it wasn't for his Robotic Reveal when T-800 shot him, he would've continued fooling the audience into thinking he was human, let alone the hero.

Eye Scream: He often stabs people through the eyes. Likely a pragmatic decision, to make sure the death is quick and they don't struggle.

Faux Affably Evil: Unlike the T-800, who is entirely stoic and blunt, he is able to affect a mildly friendly air towards people while posing as a police officer early in the film, while looking for information. However, said air quickly disappears when he no longer needs the person.

Finger Wag: After Sarah shoots him multiple times but runs out of ammo.

Flawed Prototype: Being a polyalloy construct instead of a mechanical machine separates the T-1000 from older Terminator series in a revolutionary way, but it also comes with flaws in accordance: unlike his predecessors, very few things can harm it, but these few things harm it critically.

Foreshadowing: He gives a significant look to a shiny silver shop dummy.

Godzilla Threshold: According to James Cameron, the T-1000 was something that even Skynet was afraid of and only used as a last, last ditch effort. This is expanded upon more in the novel, where it's stated that the T-1000 was created to learn even faster than the T-800 could, just by touching things. Skynet stopped production of it almost immediately because it knew that having a servant that learned that fast and potentially become The Starscream was just asking for trouble.

Icy Blue Eyes: His default form has these, further adding to his sinister presence.

Immune to Bullets: He quickly recuperates from all sorts of gunfire, even if they're powerful enough to render him immobile but for a maximum of 10 seconds.

Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His regular method of killing. Mostly with his own arms, but with a metal spike against the T-800. As the T-800 itself notes, it does so because it can't create moving parts with its liquid metal, like guns or projectiles. But knives and clubs? Absolutely.

Impersonating an Officer: He kills a police officer and assumes his identity for his first victim. It allows him to find out John's location easier.

Implacable Man: Even if you seemingly destroy it, the T-1000 will just re-form and continue its pursuit of you. Most of the second movie is spent trying to get away from him, since all their attempts at killing it just slow it down (at first).

Intangible Man: He can allow physical blows to pass through him, he can shrug off bullets, he can even pass through metal bars.

Kick the Dog: We don't see how he kills John's dog, but it's probably for the best given his usual methods of killing.

Kill and Replace: He does this to assume the identity of a police officer. It works to his advantage when he visits John's foster family, since they just assume John's in trouble again.

Knife Nut: As said by the T-800 himself, his main weapons are to morph his limbs into knives and other stabbing weapons.

Lean and Mean: Its go-to form for most of the movie is as a decidedly slim man, and it's a ruthless assassin who may well be genuinely mean.

Leitmotif: Brad Fiedel took a brass wind instrument, lowered its pitch and then played the sound in reverse to create the sound of "liquid metal churning". It's meant to invoke a similar menace to the original Terminator, but this machine has no heartbeat.

Light Is Not Good: He dresses like a police officer and has blonde hair and blue eyes. All traits that are typically considered reassuring despite him being the cruelest of the Terminators.

Lightning Bruiser: He's just as strong physically as the T-800 model, his liquid body allows him to form weapons and adapt for melee fighting, and he does not walk, he runs, and so fast that he can keep up with cars. And when it comes to destroying him, while he's not as tough or stable as the T-800, recoiling when shot and taking a few moments to recover if damaged heavily, he actually recovers completely from that damage; it takes liquid nitrogen to incapacitate him, and a vat of molten metal to actually kill him.

Logical Weakness: His body can take only a single whole shape, which means, as the T-800 explains, he can't morph his arms into something with complex parts (like a gun or Arm Cannon). His liquid metal form also lets him re-form after sustaining damage, but being flexible liquid means he is MORE affected by gunshots than the solid-frame T-800.

Made of Indestructium: His nature as a shapeshifting metallic blob means that he is terribly difficult to destroy compared to other Terminators, as firearms and explosions only damage his shape, not him, allowing him to regenerate eternally; even a hydraulic press, which finished off the mighty first T-800, would only mold him into a block before allowing him to flow out of it and reassemble. Only molten metal or corrosive acid can destroy him, and this is commonly not a handy resource. Which brings us conversely to...

Made of Plasticine: While the T-1000 is effectively immune to mechanical damage thanks to his regeneration ability, this kind of damage still disrupts him, meaning he needs to pause to heal, while the older Terminator models could simply wade through the fire (though they risked suffering lasting damage). An unloaded magazine from an AR-15 assault rifle would incapacitate the T-1000 for a significant time, a point-blank blast from a 12-gauge shotgun to its face caused it to be disoriented, and a grenade for extra measure will make it a horrible tangled mess that will require a longer time to regenerate. And (according to development notes and the novels) the T-1000 is programmed to prioritize healing egregious disruptions to its mass before continuing its mission, making this a very exploitable weakness.

Never Bring A Knife To A Fistfight: Its default weapons are nearly useless against the T-800, hence why future John Connor sent back a Terminator and not a human soldier.

Not So Stoic: Like all Terminators, he's normally stone-faced and focused. However compared to the T-800 in the first two films, he shows subtle degrees of emotion, such as being shocked or even horrified when he gets damaged severely (being frozen or having a grenade fired into his chest), annoyed when John's foster father talks while he's on the phone with John, and taking a moment to look at a silver-skinned mannequin in what might be interest that it looks like his liquid form.

Offing the Annoyance: While disguised as Janelle and talking to John over the phone, it gives Todd a noticeably annoyed look listening to him yell at the family dog before killing him off and continuing the call without batting an eye.

Oh, Crap!: When the T-800 shoots it with the grenade launcher, it has just enough time to look horrified before it explodes.

Power Incontinence: In the extended edition, after being frozen, shot, thawing, and reassembling, he begins glitching and his body parts take on the texture of whatever surface they touch. This is the first indication he isn't as invulnerable as previously thought to be.

Pulling Themselves Together: No matter how much it gets damaged, it can reassemble its form. The heroes finally stop it by shooting it into a vat of molten metal so it can't regenerate in time.

Punch-Clock Villain: Played with. Like other Terminators, killing is simply what he was programmed to do. On the other hand, unlike other Terminators, he can be very mocking towards his victims (such as his Finger Wag to Sarah) and shows some possibly subtle cruelty.

Shapeshifter Default Form: His default human model is a slender, brunette man, but his actual form is arguably a metal liquid humanoid similar to a mannequin.

Shapeshifter Swan Song: When it's knocked into the molten metal, it keeps changing form to all the people it killed until it's too damaged to keep going.

Shapeshifter Weapon: It can't create moving parts with its liquid metal body, so it sticks to knives and stabbing weapons.

Skewed Priorities: Supplemental materials explain that the T-1000's internal logic systems prioritize fixing grievous damage in order to fight at optimal efficiency, even above killing a target a few feet away from it. This weakness is exploited several times to cause the T-1000 to temporarily pause and give the heroes time to make their next move.

The same basic instruction explains how small pieces of the T-1000 will automatically seek to rejoin as a single mass, and also the malfunction after it is shattered: The "join together" program effectively gets stuck in active state, so it seeks to meld with everything it touches.

The Starscream: The reason Skynet never mass-produced it was because it was too smart for its liking and it feared them turning on it.

Super Prototype: The T-1000 is explicitly a prototype model, and extremely powerful and dangerous. The reason Skynet never mass-produced it was because it was too smart for its liking and it feared them turning on it.

Technically Naked Shapeshifter: One of the first forms it takes is that of a police officer, forming a police uniform out of itself. It doesn't actually take on the chemical properties of the things it imitates, though, so while its surface can look and feel like cloth and skin, it's still made of liquid metal.

The Worf Effect: In the comic books, a model of T-1000 is worfed by the T-X in a test fight when she disintegrates and apparently destroys him with her plasma cannon. The canonicity of this can be disputed, as it creates an inconsistency with other sources which state that plasma cannot damage the T-1000's mass.

Introduced inTerminator: Dark Fate

T- 800

Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Terminator

Canon Immigrant: The fact that a Terminator's flesh cover ages like humans do was brought up in Terminator Genisys to make the casting of a nearing-70 Arnold Schwarzenegger believeable. The latter film has been rendered Alternate Continuity due to Dark Fate being an Unreboot, but this fact has stuck in said unreboot in order to allow the casting of Schwarzenegger in the role once again.

In the first film she is guilty of this, as she dated a guy that treated her like dirt before she met Kyle. When she does meet Kyle, it's clear that she is unnerved by him, but still likes him, as proven when she tip toes around the question of whether or not he had a girlfriend, seconds before his Anguished Declaration of Love. Lastly in 2, she started going out with military personnel, mostly to learn things she could teach John, but given her history....

She even reflects to herself how the Terminator was, in her opinion, the only suitable father figure while listing off the different ways a parent can abuse or neglect their child (which speaks volumes about the other men).

In the first film, she was a Shrinking Violet with self-doubt until Skynet specifically targets her by sending a T-800 while Kyle Reese was sent to protect her by her future son's orders. Even then, she still had doubts about herself when Kyle tells her about the amazing things John told about her, until Kyle and herself were on the last legs on their life until she manages to literally crush the T-800. This action allowed Sarah to commit herself to raise her only son into the man he was in the future.

While she did Took a Level in Badass, she clearly did have problems with her communication skills, and often tried to date military personnel so they can teach something useful to John, and not giving her son the affection he desperately needed which was observed by the T-800. While initially distrustful with the reprogrammed T-800 who is under future John's orders to protect his younger self (and nearly tried to destroy his CPU), she learned to trust the machine when he proved to be a valuable ally and is visibly dishearten when he has to be destroyed to prevent Skynet's creation and Judgment Day while finally hugging her son.

Cool Pet: She had a pet iguana when she was Ginger's roommate. Ginger wasn't a fan of it.

Damsel in Distress: The first film in centered around Kyle going back to protect her from the T-800.

Dark Action Girl: She can kick a major amount of ass, but it doesn't come without a lot of psychological scarring. Her time in a mental hospital did her no favors. Further, Cameron wrote the hospital escape scene to avert the Faux Action Girl trope—if anything, the Terminator's arrival was little more than a Redundant Rescue, as Sarah was pretty much home free when he showed up.

Final Girl: She's the last remaining "Sarah Connor" in Los Angeles by the end of the first movie.

Gold Digger: Subverted Trope. In the second film... sort-of. John says Sarah would "shack up with" any guy who looked like he had something worthwhile to teach John so that he'd grow up to be the competent leader she knew he was destined to be. However, he also says that Sarah would usually try and get her new man on board with the whole Screw Destiny plan, only for them to think she's crazy and dump her. So yeah, she used a lot of guys, but under the circumstances, she still tried not to be abusive and wasn't doing it for selfish reasons.

Go Mad from the Revelation: Played Straight. The director wanted to play with the audience's sympathies for her. Even though they already know that she's right about the Bad Future and the machine uprising, that hasn't made her the most sane person in the last nine years.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the second film. While she is prone to angry outbursts and paranoid as all hell, she truly does love John not just because of the role he plays in the future, but also because he's her son.

When her best friend/roommate Ginger and her boyfriend were killed by the Terminator in their apartment.

Silently after the attempted hit on Dyson. Exacerbated by the fact that not only had she taken on a dimmer view on human life than the Terminator she was traveling with, but had adopted the MO of the Terminator that first tried to kill her. She almost killed a father in front of his wife and kid, something that hits her close to home after losing Reese and almost losing John.

Has a Disappeared Dad in the first film and her mother was killed by the T-800.

She herself is a Missing Mom to John most of his life, with her being locked in a mental asylum and all.

Pink Means Feminine: Spends most of the first film wearing pink clothes (both her waitress uniform and her main outfit).

The Protagonist: Of the first two films. Kyle and the second T-800 are The Hero of the first and second films respectively, but she has about as much screen time (and certainly more dialogue than the latter), and the story is largely told from her viewpoint.

Shell-Shocked Veteran: In the second film as a result of having lost her paramour to a cyborg that was hunting her down with the intent to kill her.

Stockholm Syndrome: Averted, but implied that other people believe she's playing the trope straight, particularly Dr. Silberman. Justified in that, after being kidnapped by a "loon" spouting ridiculous stories about killer robots, Sarah herself has become an anti-technology terrorist that blows up places that build advanced computers. Even after the police come to try and get her to make a statement against the Terminator, from their point of view, later that same night, the same guy busts her out of the institution and, days later, she's joined forces with the guy to assault a Cyberdyne building.

Take the Wheel: Is made to do this in both the first and second movie.

Thou Shalt Not Kill: Despite her being a Combat Pragmatist, she's never taken the life of a human being. The one time she becomes a "terminator" to execute someone she thinks is the reason SkyNet exists, she can't bring herself to be an unemotional killer.

Ungrateful Bitch: Instead of hugging her own son and thanking him, she just checked if John was hurt and scolds him for trying to rescue her.

Sarah: You cannot risk yourself, even for me. You're too important! Do you understand? (John begins to cry. Sarah shakes her head in disappointment.)John: I had to get you out of that place. I'm sorry! Sarah: I don't need your help. I can take care of myself.

Vocal Evolution: Linda Hamilton gives her a softer voice in the first movie. In the sequel, she gives her a more assertive and commanding voice to fit her Action Mom status.

Sergeant Kyle Reese

Dubbed by: Patrick Poivey (European French)

A resistance soldier from the future, serving under the orders of John Connor. In the year 2029 he was sent back in time to the year 1984 to protect Sarah Connor from a T-800 Model 101 Terminator. He is the father of John Connor, through the result of a predestination paradox.

Death by Sex: In the original timeline, his fate is sealed the minute he and Sarah make love.

Decoy Protagonist: Of the entire franchise. He is The Hero of the first film, but Sarah is the true protagonist, and Reese dies before Sarah destroys the Terminator at the climax.

Determinator: He will not allow Sarah to die, no matter what. Not just because it's his mission, but because he loves her. However, it becomes subverted at the end, when he begs Sarah to leave him behind because he was slowly dying anyway.

Drives Like Crazy: Without a doubt. Justified in that he learnt to drive After the End. He also instinctively drives cars at night without the headlights on, as doing so in the future would draw Aerial Hunter-Killers.

A Father to His Men: Possibly? In a flashback of the future he's shown sadly lowering his head when a soldier he's finding alongside dies. Although this may have just been because he liked her personally or something.

Future Badass: Applies more to the fourth film than the first. The first film's Kyle is the "Future Badass". The fourth film is Kyle as a teenage kid just trying to survive in a nuclear wasteland.

Gaia's Lament: A deleted scene would have had Kyle crying when he saw how beautiful the world used to be.

The Hero: Whilst not The Protagonist of the first film (that's Sarah), his efforts to protect her and battle the Terminator mean that he still qualifies.

The Hero Dies: He ultimately does not survive the final battle with the Terminator.

Heroic Sacrifice: The bomb he uses to bifurcate the Terminator is the same bomb that kills him in the end.

Naked on Arrival: As per Terminator rules, you have to be naked when traveling through time.

No Place for Me There: A deleted scene has him breaking down in tears as he laments that he doesn't belong in the world of 1984, which to him feels like paradise compared to the hellhole future he comes from. And knowing it was all doomed just made it worse.

Only a Flesh Wound: He gets shot by the Terminator while escaping from the police station, but manages to keep driving until their car runs out of gas. Later, he and Sarah hide under a bridge and when she finds out he's shot, he refuses medical attention and says it's "not bad". He's shot again later on, but this one is far more serious as it slowly saps his strength and possibly contributes to his death later.

Pet the Dog: Reese instinctively allows the dog at the roadside hotel to sniff him. They use dogs to sniff out Terminators where he comes from.

Product Placement: The film would like to let the viewers know that his shoes are made by Nike.

Rescue Introduction: He introduce himself to Sarah by extricating her from Tech Noir just as the T-800 closes in for the kill.

Sawed-Off Shotgun: Justified. He steals a police shotgun early in the film and saws it down so that he can hide it under a longcoat.

Sensory Overload: In flashback, it's shown that the future Kyle is from is blasted and barren, with most of humanity occupying cramped and overcrowded tunnels. In a deleted scene, he tears up and tells Sarah that the sight of a forest, with all its greenery and plant life, is so beautiful it hurts to look at.

Unwitting Pawn: It's strongly implied that John Connor deliberately manipulated Reese into falling in love with his mother by giving him her picture. And then he had to send his own father back in time to certain doom, just to make sure he would exist to save the world. Reese never knew his true role in the bigger picture, never realizing he was fighting for his own son. Must have been heartbreaking for John.

Played by: Earl Boen

A psychologist who worked for the state of California and with the Los Angeles Police Department. He thought nothing of the so-called "delusions" shared by Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor other than being able to make a career from them being under his care.

Agent Scully: Even more so in T2, till he sees the T-1000 walk through the barred door. Though he leaves the police station just as the Terminator walks in and is not witness to the sheer carnage that occurs next.

Deadpan Snarker: Mocks Reese in a very straight, clinical way; he remarks that Skynet is attempting some kind of retroactive abortion and wonders why Reese didn't bring ray guns from the future with him.

Highlighted in his nonchalant behavior towards a clearly distraught Sarah in the first film. The second film does not alter this assessment.

Also highlighted in the fact that he plans on making his career on Kyle Reese in the first film—something he actually does before the second film. Our first scene with him is showing off his prize patient like a zoo animal.

In the Directors Cut of T2 it is strongly implied that he condones and even commands the orderlies to physically abuse Sarah, such as beating her until she takes her medication, though it is unclear if all his patients are mistreated this way or if he is just vindictive towards Sarah for how she has been treating him (e.g. stabbing him in the knee), but the fact that the orderlies do it without question (and that Sarah is visibly intimidated by them) doesn't speak well of him. This puts her belief that she had been promised visits from her son if her behaviour improved in a darker light- it's possible he was just stringing her along and never intended to let her see him even if she did genuinely improve.

Heroic BSoD: Whilst "hero" is a stretch, Silberman does believe what he is doing is for Sarah's own good, which makes seeing the T-800 and T-1000 in action all the more horrifying.

Missed Him by That Much: In the first movie he leaves the police station as the T-800 arrives, he happens to be looking at his pager right as the Terminator walks past him.

Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Once he spots that all too familiar heavily armed badass in leather, the doctor rather wisely decides to make himself scarce.

Took a Level in Jerkass: Already not the most sympathetic human character in the first film, he comes across as a bigger jerkass in Judgment Day, in which he's strongly implied to be abusive towards Sarah.

Turn the Other Cheek: Even after years of having to deal with Sarah's repeated escape attempts, insults, and even physical attacks, he never once gets mad at her, shout at her, or even hold any of it against her. If Dr. Silberman is anything, he's a paragon of patience. Subverted in the Directors Cut where it is shown that the orderlies brutally mistreat and even sexually assault her, and Silberman is implied to not only know about but actually encourage at least some of it because he simply doesn't like her.

Ed Traxler

Detective Lieutenant Ed Traxler

"I can hear it now. He's going be called the goddamned 'Phone Book Killer'."

Played by: Paul Winfield

Dubbed by: Jean-Claude Michel (European French)

An honest, hard-working police officer from the Central Division of the LAPD. He is in charge of investigating a series of 'phone book killings' taking place across town and targeting women named "Sarah Connor".

Da Chief: Unusually for the trope, he's very calm and clear-headed. And he does everything he can to protect Sarah.

Decoy Protagonist: In the first act, he seemingly fulfills the role of the tritagonist of the film as the police detective investigating the killings made by the Terminator and trying to warn Sarah for her own protection. The deleted scenes that featured mostly his scenes further helps establishing him to be this. However, after bringing in Sarah and Kyle to the station, his arc ends with the Terminator massacring everyone in his station and fatally wounding him as Sarah and Kyle escapes.

More Dakka: He has a sidearm, but sees how the T-800 seems to be impervious to handgun bullets as it rampages through the police station, so he grabs a M16 carbine hoping it can work better. It's not any bit more effective and he ends up dead, if less immediately than Vukovich.

Nice Guy: He's a polite and kind man who tries to help Sarah through a terribly traumatic experience.

As soon as he gets the report of two women named "Sarah Connor" getting killed within hours of each other, he immediately deduces that they're dealing with a pattern Serial Killer. Traxler then tries to contact the remaining Sarah, and when that fails, puts out a news bulletin so that Sarah will call them. As soon as she does, he gives very clear instructions to not leave the public night club until he arrives.

While the others are making fun of Reese, he's quite frightened by the possibility that Reese isn't lying or crazy. He even comes to believe Reese in a deleted scene when he's dying, telling him to protect Sarah and giving him his revolver.

Supporting Protagonist: In the first act, the actions of Kyle finding Sarah, Sarah herself being stalked and the Terminator hunting Sarah are told from his viewpoint in his scenes, especially in the deleted scenes that features him following the car chase between the Terminator and Sarah and Kyle.

Tritagonist: Of the first film to Reese's protagonist and Sarah's deuteragonist, as he plays a pivotal part in tracking down the Terminator (whom he thinks to be a human psychopathic serial killer) and protecting Sarah from him until the Terminator ambushes his station and he himself gets fatally wounded.

Murder by Mistake: She's on the brutal receiving end of this by the T-800, due to living in the same apartment as Sarah, the T-800 not having a clear picture of what Sarah looks like and Sarah not being there when the robot crashes in.

Oh, Crap!: When suddenly seing her dead boyfriend crashing through a door, followed by a tall and menacing dude with a gun (the T-800) going after her.

Sacrificial Lamb: She's introduced as the best friend of Sarah, and her death is more impactful than the T-800's previous victims due to being quite likeable and how brutally she is murdered.

Upon finding out he talked dirty to Sarah on the phone and not to Ginger.

Upon seeing a tall and menacing dude (the T-800) enter his room. He quickly gets up and tries to fight him off nonetheless.

Prank Call: Intended to call Ginger to have sex phone with her, not even announcing himself. Turns out Sarah picks up the phone, laughs and and says nothing while he talks about all the things he wants to do to her. Then Sarah decides to answer, much to Matt's embarrassed confusion, and hands the phone over to Ginger.

Dubbed by: Emmanuel Garijo (European French)

The leader of the human resistance against the Machines in the future, and the son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese.

All-Loving Hero: As reviewer Confused Matthew notes, despite Sarah having raised him to be a resistance leader, throughout the film series John never fails to recognize the value of human life, indeed often putting his own life on the line to try to save people, sometimes who he barely even knows. The fact this is such a consistent and natural part of his character, arguably makes him one of the greatest examples of this type of character in cinema history.

Delinquent: He's disobedient to his parents, steals money from ATMs, skips school, and hangs out with hooligans. This is basically him venting his frustrations against everything his mother taught him, which he believes to be a lie.

Future Badass: This is the entire reason Skynet wants him dead. Note that he's badass as a pre-teen, but he takes it Up to Eleven when he becomes leader of The Resistance in the future.

The Ghost: The entire first film is about making sure that he will still exist to save humanity, but he never makes an apperance.

Heel Realization: When he sics the Terminator on two guys and the Terminator tries to shoot one in the head, John is horrified about what he almost caused. Word of God states that it was this moment which cemented John's heroic nature.

Honor Before Reason: Will not tolerate the death of even a single innocent human being, even if it means stopping a nuclear holocaust from happening.

Hope Bringer: As Kyle put it, "He taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around."

James Cameron's original intentions for Terminator 2 go even further than this. By teaching the Terminator to be human, he ends the Stable Time Loop and prevents the machine uprising, not just winning the war for humanity but making sure it never happened.

Kid Has a Point: In a Deleted Scene, restored in the special edition, Sarah and John remove the T-800's chip, intending to reprogram him so he can learn human behavior. Sarah has other ideas and tries to smash the chip with a hammer, distrusting the T-800. John stops her, and in the ensuing argument, drops a line that prompts Sarah to give in:

John: Look, Mom, if I'm ever supposed to be this great military leader, maybe you should start listening to my leadership ideas once in a while. 'Cause if my own mother won't, how do you expect anyone else to?

Kid with the Leash: Oh, are we all so very glad he made the T-800 take his vow of mercy...

Oh, Crap!: When John first sees the T-800 in the mall, he goes bug-eyed. The novelization explains a bit more: John's mother had showed him news clippings and police video of the Terminator that had chased her. John later stopped believing in Terminators, but he still knew that guy was a cop-killer and psychopath. And now, here he was... coming right at him... with a shotgun.

Miles Dyson

Dubbed by: Patrick Guillemin (European French)

The original inventor of the neural-net processor which would lead to the development of Skynet. He was the man most directly responsible for Judgment Day, although his work was clearly not intended to bring about that.

Multiple Gunshot Death: Standing in between the Connors and a heavily armed SWAT team was an extremely poor idea, and Miles is torn to shreds by the police's fire. He lives just long enough to help the Connors escape Cyberdyne.

Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Miles wanted to make life a little better for humanity. Turns out his invention leads to the demise of billions.

Wide-Eyed Idealist: He's a far cry from the person you'd think would create SkyNet. Indeed he sees only the possible positives of his creation. This may even blind him to the military applications of his invention or to the dangers of removing humans from certain decisions.

Janelle & Todd Voight

The foster parents of John Connor while his mother was interned at the Pescadero State Hospital.

Abusive Parents: When calling them, John notices something's wrong, since Janelle is "never this nice" to him.

Asshole Victim: They're guilty of negligence and mistreatment on John, and get murdered by the T-1000. John feels a little sorrow for a few seconds after T-800 breaks the news to him but quickly forgets about them.

Hate Sink: Few sympathetic qualities are given to either, especially Todd. The T-1000 itself looks noticeably annoyed at Todd's talking before killing him off.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy